charmbracelet/crush · error

failed to load configuration: %v

Error message

failed to load configuration: %v

What it means

After resolving flags, `crush logs` calls config.Load(cwd, dataDir, false) to locate the project's data directory. Any failure loading/validating the configuration (malformed crush.json/crushrc, unreadable file, invalid provider definitions, bad data-dir path) is wrapped with this message, preserving the underlying cause with %v.

Source

Thrown at internal/cmd/logs.go:56

		follow, err := cmd.Flags().GetBool("follow")
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to get follow flag: %v", err)
		}

		tailLines, err := cmd.Flags().GetInt("tail")
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to get tail flag: %v", err)
		}

		log.SetLevel(log.DebugLevel)
		log.SetOutput(os.Stdout)
		if !term.IsTerminal(os.Stdout.Fd()) {
			log.SetColorProfile(colorprofile.NoTTY)
		}

		cfg, err := config.Load(cwd, dataDir, false)
		if err != nil {
			return fmt.Errorf("failed to load configuration: %v", err)
		}
		logsFile := filepath.Join(cfg.Config().Options.DataDirectory, "logs", "crush.log")
		_, err = os.Stat(logsFile)
		if os.IsNotExist(err) {
			log.Warn("Looks like you are not in a crush project. No logs found.")
			return nil
		}

		if follow {
			return followLogs(cmd.Context(), logsFile, tailLines)
		}

		return showLogs(logsFile, tailLines)
	},
}

func init() {
	logsCmd.Flags().BoolP("follow", "f", false, "Follow log output")

View on GitHub (pinned to 7944b8e522)

Solutions

1. Read the wrapped cause: run `crush logs` and inspect the full %v output — it names the config file and parse/validation problem.
2. Validate your crush.json (JSON syntax) or crushrc script for typos; move or rename it temporarily to test (`mv crush.json crush.json.bak`).
3. Update deprecated config fields to the current schema (JSON is deprecated in favor of crushrc).
4. Check file permissions on the config and the --data-dir path; pass an explicit --cwd/--data-dir pointing to a valid project.

Example fix

// before: invalid JSON config
cfg, err := config.Load(cwd, dataDir, false) // fails: unexpected token
// after: fix crush.json
{
  "provider": { "anthropic": { ... } }
} // valid JSON, no trailing commas

// Go: validate config before running the command
if _, err := os.Stat(filepath.Join(cwd, "crush.json")); err == nil {
    if _, jerr := os.ReadFile(filepath.Join(cwd, "crush.json")); jerr != nil {
        return fmt.Errorf("config unreadable: %w", jerr)
    }
    // also validate JSON parses
}

cfg, err := config.Load(cwd, dataDir, false)
if err != nil {
    return fmt.Errorf("failed to load configuration: %w", err) // keep %w to inspect cause
}

When it happens

Trigger: Running `crush logs` in a directory containing an invalid or non-parseable crush.json/crushrc, a config referencing unknown providers or missing required fields, an unreadable config file (permissions), or an invalid --data-dir path.

Common situations: Hand-edited crush.json with JSON syntax errors; deprecated crush.json fields after an upgrade; config with a provider block referencing a missing model; running from a directory where the config file is not readable.

Related errors

• %s model %q not found
• failed to initialize config: %w
• not a valid bedrock api key
• not a valid vercel api key
• mcp stdio config requires a non-empty 'command' field

AI-assisted analysis of charmbracelet/crush@7944b8e522 (2026-08-29). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e1c90e243e1e4b96. Report an issue: GitHub.